A treasure trove of original correspondence reveals the experiences of four generations of a Scottish family in the service of the East India Company.

From 1760 to 1869, four generations of one family from the Scottish Highlands sought their fortunes in the service of the East India Company. As they worked their way up through the ranks of the empire, the Baillie family left numerous footprints in India and recorded their fascinating experiences in letters sent home to Scotland.

Drawing on thorough research of the military, political, and economic events of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and an extensive collection of family letters that depict the lives and personalities of his ancestors, Alexander Charles Baillie brings the history of British India to life. The compelling documents, lost for over a century with many reproduced here, reveal changing race relations and social attitudes, cultural tensions, military and civilian battles, economic pressures, and the rise and decline of the East India Company. The book focuses especially on two members of the family - William of Dunain, a military officer, and John of Leys, a civil servant - whose numerous adventures and misadventures impart provocative clues about the workings of the empire and the daily lives of its most influential figures.

An exciting, invaluable, and personalized glimpse into the past of India, Scotland, and the East India Company, Call of Empire will appeal to genealogy enthusiasts and social and global historians.

“The extensive excerpts from relevant letters and other documents, filled with domestic detail, and those sons and brothers working their way up through the ranks of the East India Company, will speak volumes to Scottish enthusiasts and social historians. An excellent and welcome addition to books on post-Culloden Scotland.” Donald Harman Akenson, Queen’s University, and author of Ireland, Sweden, and the Great European Migration, 1815-1914

Alexander Charles Baillie is chancellor emeritus of Queen’s University, former chair and chief executive officer of TD Bank. He lives in Toronto.

ContentsPreface ixMaps, Illustrations, and Family Trees xiii, 201

1 Culloden’s Children 32 No Great Mischief 183 Eastward Ho! 314 Baillie-ki-Paltan 475 Brothers in Arms 686 Affairs of the Heart 837 A Council of Incompetents 1068 Command at Pondicherry 1389 Disaster 15410 Imprisonment and Death at Seringapatam 17611 Homeward Bound 21112 Brain Fever in Baghdad 22913 Estrangement 25114 John of Leys and the Acquisition of Bundelcund 26415 Margaret and the Anglo-Indian Elmores 28816 The Resident at Lucknow 30017 Dismissal 31318 Retribution 33419 Dissolution 350Epilogue 361

Colonial and Current Place Names 367Cast of Supporting Characters 369Glossary of Anglo-Indian and Scottish Terms 409Notes 413Bibliography 443Index 451